Facebook suspect: Police altered remarks

Updated 5:52 am, Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Justin R. Carter, 19, was jailed for almost five months after making a terrorist threat on Facebook.

Justin R. Carter, 19, was jailed for almost five months after making a terrorist threat on Facebook.

Facebook suspect: Police altered remarks

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NEW BRAUNFELS — Lawyers for a man accused of making terrorist threats on Facebook claim authorities, in securing charges against him, misquoted his remarks about shooting up a kindergarten.

Justin R. Carter, 19, who cast the postings as a failed attempt at sarcasm, was held in jail from Feb. 14 until July 10, when an anonymous supporter paid his $500,000 bail.

At a pre-trial hearing Monday, defense lawyer Donald H. Flanary III asked state District Judge Jack Robison to allow the defense to review recordings of witness testifying before the grand jury that indicted Carter.

“It is unclear whether the grand jury chose to write the indictment in a manner that is inconsistent with the facts, or if the grand jury was not presented with the true facts,” said the motion by Flanary who, after a brief discussion at the judge's bench Monday, reported grand jury sessions here aren't recorded.

“Since the ultimate issue in this case is whether Mr. Carter's use of language constitutes a true threat, every word used is material evidence, and the failure to properly quote such language essentially alters the evidence,” Flanary said in the new motion, raising the specter of possible misconduct by police and prosecutors.

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Flanary called variances between the indictment's wording and the original Facebook posting “a serious and material misrepresentation of the evidence.”

His motion asserts that a full reading of the Facebook exchange shows Carter made no actual threat to harm anyone, but merely made “a satirical response to a previous verbal attack” by another poster.

The indictment accuses Carter of intending to put the public “in fear of serious bodily injury” and to disrupt public communications, transportation and utilities by threatening “to shoot up a kindergarten, watch the blood rain down and eat the beating heart out of one of them.”

However, a screen shot included in Flanary's motion indicates Carter wrote, “I think Ima SHOOT UP A KINDERGARTEN AND WATCH THE BLOOD OF THE INNOCENT RAIN DOWN.”

After a woman responded with criticism, Carter added, “AND EAT THE BEATING HEART OUT OF ONE OF THEM.”

An anonymous complaint lodged in Canada over his Feb. 13 postings initially sparked an investigation by police in Austin, where his father lives. Local police took over after learning Carter lived here.

The officer preparing it also wrongly claimed to have matched Carter's Facebook picture to his driver license photo, said Flanary, noting said Carter has no license and took the Facebook photo himself.

While jailed in Austin and represented by another lawyer, Flanary says a New Braunfels detective questioned Carter without that lawyer's knowledge.

“In their effort to protect the public, it appears they cut corners in a rush to arrest him,” Flanary said Monday.